Working to spark a new age of basketball in Mexico
by Patty Medina / @coachpmedina
Coaching ambassador, The Basketball Embassy
Founder of Hooper Mentality Foundation
“You are the only Mexico-born college head coach in the US, Coach Medina,” the email read.
I continued reading, honored, yet simultaneously bothered by the statement. There had to be some misunderstanding, because basketball has been around for over a century in both the United States and Mexico. Yet, after contacting the NAIA and NCAA and finding no record of any other Mexico-born college head coach, I instantly realized the magnitude of my role and my responsibility in this sport and in my birth country.
SEARCHING FOR THE AMERICAN DREAM
I was born in a small town located in the rural mountains of Sonora, Mexico. My family and I came to the U.S. when I was about six years old. Years prior, my father hopped and hid on a train traveling from Arizona to California in search of a better life for him and his family. He managed to get a working visa and returned to Mexico to bring us back to the U.S. with him.
Unbeknownst to many, I was an illegal immigrant until the age of 17 so, for a long time, college was an unreachable dream. I didn’t apply to colleges because I didn’t have a social security number and at the time there wasn’t much assistance for undocumented students, no Dream Act or AB540. When my father naturalized near the end of my senior year in high school, we all gained citizenship, and I began my college search. If you understand the world of college recruiting, you know it was a severely late start to finding a school.
Like the majority of children coming from Hispanic or Latin backgrounds, the mentality that was embedded in me was that of the American Dream–we were in the U.S. to receive a better education and find a great career path that provides financial stability, a house with a white picket fence and a family–whether or not that was a life that we were passionate about. To this day, success to my father means financial stability, job security and longevity.
MAKING HISTORY
Regardless of my family’s theory of success, my sole motive in life has been to find my passion, a career in that passion and to love every moment of that career. In becoming the first Mexico-born coach, I realized that it’s now my responsibility to inspire other women, specifically Hispanic or Latina, to follow their passions and not just for monetary compensation. After growing up in a culture that doesn’t feature many women in the industry as players or leaders, one of my primary goals is to position women working in sports as something positive and beneficial to our country.
Since finding out that I help represent my country in the basketball and coaching world, I have committed myself to experiencing and learning more about our culture in the sport. I never played basketball in Mexico, so in a sense, I had to go back to my roots to learn where I came from (from a sports standpoint) to represent it more accurately.
Through my research and experience, I have established a newfound respect, admiration and level of pride in being an athlete from Mexico. I recently had the pleasure of coaching camps in my home country, attending games and witnessing first-hand the cultural insights and differences in basketball between the U.S and Mexico.
TRANSCENDING DIFFERENCES
Although I am currently not a head coach, my desire to impact the lives of athletes still remains and basketball has been and will continue to be the avenue. Most importantly, the relationships and connections I’ve established will allow me to help players get recruited to pursue their dreams of playing basketball in the U.S.
Diversity and inclusion has become a common topic discussed amongst many fields this day and age. In basketball, when you think of diversity and inclusion, the Mexican representation still seems to be left out of the conversation.
Basketball transcends all dimensions of diversity. Although many of us come from many backgrounds, we come together through the common languages of sport and are united by our love of basketball. It’s a game that anyone, anywhere, can participate in and follow. I believe I have a responsibility to continue to fight for a seat at the table for the Mexican student-athletes and future Mexican coaches that I represent.